Time to Tell a Story
by SiLvErDrAgOnDuO
Summary: "Himuro-san, why do you seem to be making a poor attempt at disappearing?"and that's where everything started. When Amaya went and befriended the members of the Yosen basketball club,her hopes of having a quite school life was over. "Amaya, why do you have such a scary expression on your face?" "I'm thinking of ways to kill all of you and make it look like an accident." HimuroOC
1. Once Upon a Time

**I was looking through KnB OC fics and I noticed that there weren't that many of HimuroOC fics, so I decided to try my hand at one. I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own KnB no matter how much a fantasize that I do**

* * *

Two children, both of them girls ran up to a tall dark haired man who was talking to a tanned dark haired woman. "Tou-chan, tou-chan, can you tell us a bed time story?" asked the younger of the two. Their father smiled gently at them. "Shouldn't you be in bed for a bedtime story, Ayame?" he asked the younger one teasingly. Ayame, a pale skinned dark haired girl of five pouted. The elder girl, a tanned girl who's hair was just as dark as the rest of her family's with her bangs flopping down to cover one eye, grinned down at her younger sister. Their mother, not willing to miss out on the fun turned and said, "Aren't you a little old for bed time stories Hana?" she asked the older girl. Hana shuffled looking embarrassed. "Ayame wanted me to come with her to ask tou-chan," she said, refusing to meet her mothers eye.

"Okaa-san, can you come too?" asked Ayame, turning the full force of an adorable five year old's pout to their mother. Their father turned to grin at his wife, who gave him a half hearted glare in return. "All right, but go to bed first, _we'll_ be there in a few minutes, 'kay?" Twenty years in Japan hdan't been able to completely erase the slight American twang from their mothers speech (though her frequent visits to America didn't help that. Or the fact that her PhD had been done there).

"A bed time story," said the father turning to the mother with a smile. "Ayame was pestering me on telling her how we first met. I have no doubt that this is a part of that ploy of hers, Amaya," he said, amusement clear on his face. His wife, Amaya, sniffed looking haughty, and said, "She gets that from you Tatsuya."

Tatsuya laughed and said, "Do you want to let the cat out of the bag?" Amaya looked thoughtful. "It seems our daughter has inherited your manipulative nature and my curiosity," she said, smiling, "Though I was much quicker at letting things be."

Getting up the couple walked towards their younger daughters bedroom, where they knew both daughters were waiting eagerly. "So, shall we get started?" asked Tatsuya as he sat down at the foot of the bed, on which both Ayame and Hana were sitting, unable to completely hide their excitement, no matter how hard Hana tried.

"Can you tell us how both of you met?" asked Ayame immediately. I grinned, catching Tatsuya's eye. "Fine," I said. And so I began.

* * *

"Hello, my name is Koizumi Amaya, nice to meet you," I said trying not to wince at how painfully obvious the American accent I tried to hide was. I had just moved to Japan from America. I could see the curiosity on everyone's face no matter how well hidden or open it was.

I was mixed race. My mother was from India and my father was Japanese. Though my mother was Indian, she had been raised in America for a good portion of her life and had met my father when he had gone to America for business opportunities. They had gotten married after two years and had me in another two. My sister followed another two years after. It was a running joke in our family that two was our lucky number. My father had been transferred back to Japan just recently and my family followed. We had moved to Akita and I started attending Yosen.

"Very well, you may go sit next to Wei Ryu," the teacher said gesturing to a tall boy sitting at the back of the class. I nodded and headed towards him.

* * *

The bell rang and I fought back the urge to sag in my seat, knowing that it would not be a good idea. People walked up to my desk and started talking to me, asking me questions and making small talk. The kind of thing a person like me, who would rather find a small corner, curl up and read dozens of books to my hearts content, hated.

"So, Koizumi-san, where are you coming form?" asked a girl.

"Didn't you hear her accent, I'd say she comes from America, right Koizumi-san?" said another one.

"That's right, I just moved here recently." I replied.

"Seriously, but your Japanese is really good."

"Yes, actually my father was Japanese and he taught my mother so my family can converse in Japanese to an extent."

"So you've lived in America your whole life?"

"Yes, my sister and I were born and raised there."

"You have a sister?"

"Yes, she's two years younger than me and attending middle school."

"Do you know your way around yet?"

"I'm afraid not, I was planning to know how to get around in about a week."

"Why don't we show you around, then?"

"Thank you, that would be much appreciated."

"No need to act so formal with us, silly."

I continued to smile. I had never known why, but despite the fact that I was rather antisocial I could get along well with most people without too much of trouble. It also helped that I tried to avoid confrontations as much as possible, and I rather successful at avoiding trouble.

A small gaggle of girls, giggling and laughing started taking me on a tour of the school, all the while pointing out popular or god looking people who's names I would probably end up forgetting and who's existence I would probably be oblivious to.

"That's the basketball club, the pride and joy of Yosen. They placed 3rd at the InterHigh this year." I nodded along, trying my best to appear interested in what they were saying.

"Your seat mate Wei Ryu is own the basketball team," one of them said. "and also," she lowered her voice and hushed giggles broke out amongst everyone else, "Himuro Tatsuya."

From the way they were acting, the guy seemed to be a pretty big deal, but his importance was lost out on me. "Who is he?" I asked, trying to convince myself that since I was new to the school and never meet him, I had no reason to feel like an ignorant child.

"Himuro Tatsuya's also a student coming from America, but despite not being here for that long his one of the most popular and sought after guys in the school," said a girl, blushing. Yup, definitely a big deal. "He gets confessed to all the time but he's turned them all down," said another girl, but hurriedly said, "in a really nice way, of course, he's such a gentleman, and so nice."

I felt vaguely exasperated. So what if he was apparently good looking, so what if he was apparently gentlemanly, he was just a guy. I hoped that not all the girls in the school were like this.

"The lucky thing is that he's in our class to boot," said a petite girl. "Which one was he?" I asked, wondering how I had missed the guy who had all these girls crazy for him. "The guy with dark hair and hair that flopped over half his face," she said. I was good at remembering faces, something I was quite proud of. I nodded, showing that I remembered who they were talking about. The girls all giggled again and I mentally vowed never to be with Himuro Tatsuya (not that he would even notice me anyway) for the wrath of these girls would be quite _troublesome_.

How very wrong I was.

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**That's it for the first chapter, but I'll be out with the second chapter pretty soon. I'm also planning to start an AkashiOC fic soon so check my profile if your interested.**

**SilverFox**


	2. Introductions

**Here's the new chapter. I hope you enjoy it. The AkashiOC story 'Victory should be put up in a few days. **

* * *

"Okaa-san," said Ayame the next night, as they all sat in her room. "Can you please continue the story of how both of you first met? So far, the only person you've met is Ryu-oji, and you haven't even talked to him yet." she said. "By the way," said Hana, looking slightly curious, "did Ryu-oji speak like he does now even back then?" she asked. "Even though he's a great help for deciphering Shakespear, just listening to him talk. . " she trained off, uncertain.

"Don't be silly onee-chan," said Ayame, looking at her older sister in disbelief. "There's no way he spoke like he does now even back then!" Tatsuya and Amaya shared a smile, trying not to laugh and decided to keep their two girls in suspense.

"So where did we leave off last night?" Amaya asked her daughter. "You promised never to get involved with tou-chan," Hana piped up, smirking slightly at her embarrassed mother and amused father.

"By the way, kaa-san how did both of you meet?" asked a curious Ayame. Tatsuya looked vaguely sheepish and Amaya grinned. "Well, you see, it went something like this.. . . "

* * *

"Himuro-san, what are you do you seem to be making a poor attempt at disappearing?" I honestly did not know why I said that. I made it a habit to watch my words around people I did not know, but I was curious.

Himuro, managing to escape from the crowd (that seemed to be revolved around him, funnily enough), managed to get to my side. "Koizumi-san, correct?" he said, smiling at me.

"Err, yes. Himuro-san, do you want to go somewhere less. . crowded?" I said, trying not to laugh at the relief on his expression. It was lunchtime and the cafeteria was jam packed, with most of the school congregated around the basketball regulars.

We headed outside, which was considerably calmer compared to the ruckus that was inside. Himuro smiled at me and said "Thank you for the help back there, Koizumi-san."

I shrugged, feeling decidedly uncomfortable. "Please, just call me Amaya. No honorifics. I grew up without them, so I'm not used to it." I said. He laughed. "Fine, just call me Tatsuya then. I lived in America for a while too, so I can understand how you feel," he said.

"Just Tatsuya, then," I said nodding decisively. "By the way, Amaya-san," he said, chuckling when a glared at him. "Or just Amaya, how did you know my name?" he asked. I felt incredibly fortunate (not for the first time, I might add) that it was hard for me to blush. "Ohh, a few girls mentioned you. You're reputation precedes you Tatsuya," I said casually. Tatsuya nodded. "You're rather friendly," I noted, gazing at him questioningly. He returned my gaze evenly, with a serious face. "So are you," he said. "Not exactly," I said. "I don't socialize much, I'm just trying to be polite when people speak to me."

Tatsuya was silent after that, but I got the feeling that I hadn't completely bypassed his curiosity.

* * *

"Koizumi-chan," said a girl in my class. Momoka, if I remembered correctly. "Will you be coming with us to watch the basketball regulars practice?" she asked, smiling at me. She had long blond hair that was pulled back into tight ponytail with bright green eyes. Her appearance was definitely different from mine. I had wavy hair that fell past my shoulders. That coupled with my nut brown skin and dark brown eyes, made me a bit of an oddity as compared to the appearance of the rest of my classmates.

"Ahh, sure" I said, not having anything better to do anyway. Momoko seemed to know when I wanted to be left alone. Although she could act or appear like a stereotype, I had come to realize that she completely and utterly insane and proud of it. Momoko was the person I was closest to, although she was a lot more outgoing than me, she could appreciate good music and the last person on earth that I would ever purposefully anger.

We headed towards the gym and when we got near my jaw dropped. Momoko saw my expression and snickered. "Don't worry, they're only this zealous about once a week." The area around the gym was completely blocked due to dozens of students (mostly female) attempting to get a glimpse of the gym. "Once a week is once a week too much," I muttered. "And here I was thinking that this kind of thing only existed in shoujo manga." Momko who had heard my comment grinned so broadly that she looked as though she would split her face. "Ahh, you're an otaku, then?" she said. I reached up to rub the back of my head sheepishly, a habit that I had unconsciously picked up. "I guess you could put it like that."

As we managed to get near to the crowd, I wondered if the so called 'Japanese Lunch Time Rush' was this bad. "Why are the basketball regulars so popular?" I asked Momoko. She smiled lightly and said, "You see, the basketball club is quite good. It doesn't help that the members are good looking. Our school happened to get its hands on one of the Generation of Miracles this year, so it's rather smug."

"The Generation of Miracles?" I asked. Momoko laughed. "I keep forgetting that your foreign and not interested in the basketball circuit. The Generation of Miracles are 5 basketball players that cropped up in their first year of middle school and were worshiped as geniuses or prodigies. They attended Teiko middle school and while they were their they held a record of 3 consecutive championships." she said. I gave a low whistle from between my teeth. "Wow, no wonder the school seems to quite proud of their player," I said. "Who all our in the basketball team anyway?"

Momoko launched into another explanation. "The members of our team are Murasakibara Atsushi, First Year, a member of the Generation of Miracles. He's insanely tall, but behaves like a child and loves sweets. He doesn't like basketball and claims he only plays because he's good at it. Then their's Wei Ryu. He's a transfer student from China and only loses in height to Musasakibara-san. He speaks _differently. _Then their's Himuro Tatsuya. I won't bother explaining him since most of the girls in our class must have briefed you. Then come the two third years. Fukui Kensuke's probably the most straight forward guy you could ever meet. He's blunt to the the point it could be considered insensitive, at least in my opinion. Okamura Kenichi may be the captain, but even if he looks tough, he's a bit of a goof, and it looks as though his teammates don't respect him, though he is capable on the court. They have a coach too; Araki Masako, even if she is in her forties, she was a regular on the National Woman's Basketball Team, so you can't underestimate her."

I blinked rapidly when she finished, trying to process everything. "You know a lot about the regulars, huh," I said. "I am in complete awe." Momoko rolled her eyes. "I suppose I should be, being their manager and everything," she said. "You're their manager?" I asked in surprise. She nodded, looking proud.

The gym was large and from what I could see, there had been no expense spared to make the players practice in the best of environments. Although I wasn't interested in basketball, the gym impressed me. I hesitated at the entrance, uncertain whether or not I should enter. Momoko decided for me. She grabbed me by the arm and dragged me inside.

"Guys, I want to introduce you to someone," she called out. The regulars who had been practicing, supervised by a woman that I could only assume was their coach, stopped their practice and turned to face us. Being a person that avoided attention in general, I was understandably uncomfortable.

Momoko, ignoring my awkwardness, introduced me to the regulars. "Everyone, this is Koizumi Amaya, a new student from America," she said, beaming. They observed me and I fought back the urge to shy behind Momoko.

"Nice to meet you," said the shortest of the lot, a boy with white-blond hair. "I'm Fukui Kensuke," he said. I smiled at him and hoped that it didn't turn out like a grimace.

"I'm Okamura Kenichi, the captain," said a huge third year. He looked like a gorilla, but he gave me a goofy smile. "Nice to meet you."

"Thou sits next to me, though we have never spoken. It is nice to meet thee," said Wei Ryu. I blinked, wondering if I had heard him wrong. But, then again, Momoko did say he spoke differently, and judging by the looks on everyone else's face, he spoke like this all the time."Yes, we haven't spoken until now," I said, smiling at him.

"Atsushi, I'm surprised to see you here today," Momoko said, turning to the . . . tall purple haired giant who was standing a little ways away, munching on a snack. "Koizumi-chan, this is Murasakibara Atsushi, one of the team's aces." she said. I nodded politely at him.

"Himuro Tatsuya, though we've already met Amaya," said Tatsuya nodding. "Nice to see you again Tatsuya," I said, smiling at him and trying to hide my relief. I failed horribly if the slight quirk of his lips was anything to go by.

"Hold on, you know her?" asked Momoko, looking slightly put out. Tatsuya nodded. "Yes, I ran into her earlier, she helped me out of a . . tight spot," he said. Fukui snorted. "Fangirls." judging by the exasperated look on everyone's faces, this was a common occurrence.

"Nice to meet your new friend and all Momoko, but what's she doing at practice?" It was Fukui who asked the question that was obviously on everyone's mind.

"You see, " said Momoko, beaming brightly, "Koizumi-chan's going to be our new assistant manager."

"Excuse me?"


	3. Adjusting

**Thank you for the reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

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Hana chuckled remembering how her kaa-san had been forced to become the assistant manager of the basketball team that her father was a part of. Momoko, who was still one of her mother's closest friends and one of their many babysitters, still had a knack of getting people to do anything she wanted without her even asking (mostly because they weren't given a choice in the matter).

"So what happened after that, kaa-san?" asked Ayame, excited. Amaya sighed, shooting her husband a halfhearted glare as she continued from where she had left of the night before.

* * *

I sighed for the umpteenth time as I watched everyone else exits the doors. When I had told my mother that I was now the (reluctant) assistant manager of the basketball team, she had been delighted and forced me to stay. Not that Momoko would have allowed me to quite anyway.

"Come on Amaya, or we'll be late," trilled Momoko, moving to stand behind me. I took my time getting up, feeling decidedly sulky. Why had I even agreed? Oh, thats right, I'm too nice for my own good.

_Flashback~_

_"Excuse me?" I asked, my eyes narrowing. "Yep, you'll be my assistant manager for tomorrow onward," she said, completely ignoring me. The rest of the regulars blinked, looking nonplussed. I blinked. "Why?" I asked. She blinked back at me and replied, "We're friends, right?" I shifted, not liking where she was going with this. "Right," I said. "So, don't friends help each other out?" she asked. I sighed. "Yes." Momoko beamed. "Great. I can't handle these dunderheads on my own, so you can help me out," she said. The guys looked mildly insulted at being called dunderheads. How the hell was I suppose to say no with everyone watching, and especially to a face like that. _

_"Fine," I said. Momoko grinned broadly. "Great, you can start coming from tomorrow." _

_End Flashback~_

We headed over to the gym, Momoko scolding me on being so slow, and me trying to tune her without seeming too impolite. i had already been here for over a week, and gotten used to watching everyone. The way they played basketball astonded me. I wasn't the 'go to' person on basketball, but I was pretty sure that high school level shouldn't be this high.

I sighed again, dropping my bag before heading over the coach. In all honestly the coach scared me. She looked stern and I couldn't tell what would get her angry, so I was cautious around her. The coach had high expectations for her team and expected them to be fulfilled. I knew that it was only her faith in Momoko's skills as a manager that allowed me to join as an assistant.

I did basic things like getting drinks and snacks for everyone, making sure that everyone (except for Murasakibara, who was Momoko's responsibility) to practice.

"You look as though someone ran over your cat Amaya," said Fukui coming to peer over my shoulder at what I was reading. I had made it clear to everyone after a few misunderstandings that I would only respond to my first name, preferably without any honorifics.

"I don't have a cat," I said, frowning as I read the stats of the players of other schools that Momoko had collected. I was going through the people that we'd most likely be facing for the Winter Cup. Our school had only managed to place 3rd for the InterHigh. That meant that we were already qualified for the Winter Cup.

"It was only a figure a speech," he said. "Why are you looking over the data of other schools?" he asked. I rolled my eyes. "Hmm, maybe because we have to be ready for the Winter Cup when it comes along," I said sarcastically. Fukui laughed. We got along quite well. After getting used to and comfortable with the basketball players I didn't bother to watch my words around them and had been dubbed 'the second Fukui'. My reply to that had been 'come on, I'm not that bad yet."

"Seirin High is impressive, especially for a new school. Defeated the two kings, Seiho and Shutoku," I said as I read their data.

"Tatsuya, is Murasakibara coming today," I asked Tatsuya who had just entered. He frowned and walked up to me. "f he's not here then that means that he probably won't be coming," he said. I sighed, and ran a hand through my hair. I seemed to be doing that lately.

"Momoko," I called as the boys began their practice. "Yes?" she asked. "I was wondering," I said. "Seirin seems to be quite good at offence. I haven't seen any of their matches. Should we be worried about them?" I asked. Momoko frowned as she glanced down to the paper in my hands. "honestly, not at the moment. But they can get much stronger, and when they do, we should be careful." I nodded thoughtfully and turned to watch the practice.

* * *

Practice was over quickly today. I sighed as we walked out together. "You've been doing a lot of that recently," said Tatsuya falling into step next to me. I shrugged. "I guess I'm still trying to get used to this," I said. A small smile played at the corner of his mouth. From what I knew of Tatsuya he was polite but rather calculation. He didn't go out of his way to make conversation, but he could be described as friendly to an extent. I still couldn't completely figure him out, which was different from the rest.

"I DARE YOU TO SAY THAT AGAIN FUKUI KENSUKE!" Momoko shrieked. Most probably Fukui said something to Momoko without thinking again. I knew that if I had to choose between making Momoko angry and going for three days without books, I would choose the latter. But Fukui managed to get Momoko angry on a weekly basis. I watched passively as punched him sending him flying.

"He really doesn't learn does he?" I asked Tatsuya as we continued home. I had discovered that we lived in the same neighborhood after the first day of practice when we headed home in the same direction.

"Apparently not," he replied, sounding amused.

* * *

_Where Fukui landed_

"Oww, is Momoko insane or what?" he groaned rubbing his head. He blinked the stars out of his eyes and blinked a couple of more times to be sure. "Are you alright?" asked a girl with short brown hair.

"No," he groaned trying to get up. "Where am I?" he asked. "Your in front of Seirin," she replied, looking puzzled.

"What?"

* * *

**Although that shouldn't be possible it's fanfiction so anything can happen. I was originally planning to put Momoko with Murasakibara, but now I'm considering Fukui. Please state your preference in your reviews**

**SilverFox**


	4. Interlude

Closing my eyes, I leaned back in my chair, wondering if my homework would disappear if I just ignored it.

"No, the homework will not go away if you just ignore it," I jumped. "Tatsuya!" I exclaimed. Tatsuya laughed as he sat down in front of me. I had gone to the library to do my homework so that there would be reference points for the parts which I didn't understand. Needless to say, I was failing miserably.

"How did you know what I was thinking?" I asked, feeling embarrassed. "Just your expression," he said. I blinked. "My expression?" I asked, not really getting it. "Yeah. You're expression tends to show exactly what your thinking unless you know that there's someone nearby," he explained. Still not completely getting it, I shrugged it off.

"So what are you having trouble with?" asked Tatsuya. "Japanese mostly," I admitted. "I can speak and understand Japanese just fine, but reading and writing is a lot harder. Math is tough, but nothing I can't handle. Same goes for Science. History and Geography are my strong points so no trouble there."

Tatsuya looked thoughtful. "I could teach you Japanese. Although if you look at it, I'm not the best choice, but I can understand what your going through," he said. Was it any wonder that from the entire basketball team, he was my favorite.

"Amaya-chan," called Momoko. "Yeah," I asked turning to her. She grinned. "I have a favor to ask of you. Can you come with me for a minute?" she asked. I shrugged. "Sure. You don't mind do you Tatsuya?" I asked, turning to the boy in question. "Not at all."

"What is it?" I asked, after we were outside. "Well, you see, we have to deliver these papers. Coach asked you to help me out," Momoko explained. I nodded, taking half the stack.

"Ehh, what are fatty and newbie doing?" drawled Fukui, walking up to us. "Fukui Kensuke, if you call me fat again I will throw you all the way to Touou," hissed Momoko, glaring at her best friend. Fukui scowled. "You already threw me to Seirin," he said. Momoko looked as though she would throttle him then and there. Momoko had a pleasant, round face and was chubby, though it worked pretty well for her, she tended to be touchy about her weight. Fukui was the only one who could get away with teasing Momoko about her weight (though not without a few injuries).

"We're distributing papers," I cut in before Momoko gave him bodily harm. He glanced at the papers and shrugged, then walked off whistling a merry tune.

"Honestly that Kensuke, he seems to enjoy getting hurt," sighed Momoko, as we walked down the hall. "You two are quite close," I observed. I wasn't sure if I was imagining things, but a light dusting of pink seemed to appear on Momoko's cheeks. "Yeah, we're childhood friends, so we know each other pretty well," she said, shrugging as though it was no big deal.

"Are both of you an item?" I asked, unable to hide my curiosity. I knew I wasn't imagining things when Momoko's face began to resemble a cherry. "N-no," she said, but muttered something under her breath that I didn't quite catch. "What was that?" I asked. "Well, it's not like I would mind," she sighed. "You like him?" Somehow it seemed to make sense. "I'm still amazed that he hasn't caught on yet," Momoko sighed.

I shrugged. "Boys," I said. She nodded. "What about you and Himuro?" asked Momoko looking curious. "Meaning?" I asked, not sure what she was implying. "Do you like him?" she clarified. I blinked. Then I laughed. "I can see what you mean. He is easy on the eyes, but I just consider him a friend at the moment."

Momoko looked disappointed, but didn't press the point.

* * *

"Damn it all!" I swore in English. So far everything was written only in Japanese. My reading skills sucked at best, and this took the cake. Just because my mother couldn't read Japanese, didn't mean that I could. Since father was at work and my mother needed to buy groceries, she sent me out. Giving me a list in English and trying to find out where everything was isn't easy. I wished that my sister was with me. Though her Japanese wasn't great, it was better than mine.

"Amaya? What are you doing here?" Whirling around, I could have cried in relief as my eyes rested on my hero. "Tatsuya," I said, opting to keep my dignity and not cry.

"Buying groceries?" Tatsuya asked. He was dressed in a plain white t-shirt and jeans that made his already well toned body look even better. My face felt slightly hot. "Yeah," I said nodding. "What about you?" I asked. "Same," he said smiling. My face still felt rather warm.

"Umm," I felt uncomfortable. "Having trouble?" he asked, his lips still curled up in amusement. "Yeah," I said, grinning sheepishly. "I'm supposed to be teaching you Japanese, so isn't now a good time?" he said. I laughed. "I guess so."

Tatsuya was a good teacher. He understood my confusion and explained them well. It was enjoyable and before I knew it my list was over.

"Thanks a lot a Tatsuya," I said, smiling at him as I lifted up the grocery bags. "Your welcome," he replied. I blinked in surprise as he took the grocery bags from me. "Tatusya, what are you-" I asked. "It's rude to make a lady carry the bags. I'll walk you home," he said. My cheeks, which had cooled down when we started talking, promptly heated up again.

"No, it's fine, really," I said, attempting to the bags back from him. Tatsuya simply held the bags out of reach, obviously enjoying the irritation on my face as I was unable to reach. I dropped my hands, letting out a huff of irritation. "Fine," I snapped. "So how are things at home?" he asked as we started walking. "Not much is going on. I don't know what kaa-san was thinking when she sent me to do the shopping. Yui would have been better," I said, shaking my head. "Yui?" he asked, looking genuinly curious. "My sister," I said. "My mother is American, but has Indian origin and my father is a Japanese that moved to America," I explained. He nodded.

We continued to make small talk all the way back to our neighborhood.

* * *

"Tadaima," I called as I opened the door. "Come on in Tatsuya," I said, opening the door for him. He stepped in murmuring a small thank you. My mother stepped out of the kitchen. "Ohh, welcome- Amaya who's this?" she asked, smiling at Tatsuya. "Kaa-san, this is Himuro Tatsuya a friend. Tatsuya, this is my mother," I said, introducing them.

"Nice to meet you," Tatsuya said, in English, smiling politely as he reached out to shake her hand. Mother smiled, shaking his hand warmly. "Nice to meet you as well, Himuro-kun," she replied.

"You can leave the bags here Tatsuya," I said. He put the bags down. "I'll see you tomorrow, Amaya," he said smiling at me. "Have a nice evening Koizumi-san," he said to my mother.

"A friend from school, eh?" my mother asked, a teasing glint in her eye. My face felt hot for the rest of the evening.


End file.
